


when the crows jumped over the moon

by the_silverdoe



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Birthday, Canon Universe, Friendship, Gen, in which tsukki is ron swanson, just let your team love you tsukki!!, karasuno team stresses tsukki out, kuroo and bokuto make the tiniest of cameos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-27
Updated: 2018-09-27
Packaged: 2019-07-18 02:20:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16108757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_silverdoe/pseuds/the_silverdoe
Summary: During practice one day, Yachi points out to the entire team that Tsukishima’s birthday is coming up in a week. Since then, Tsukishima’s life has known no peace.“Tsukishima-kun, it’s your birthday next week?” she asks, an index finger resting on the page some place where his name must be. “Sh-should we… would you like it if—?”“Please no,” he replies automatically before she can finish asking the question. The last thing he wants is for anyone —especiallythe people in this room — to take notice or change anything about their behavior towards him, just because it’s his birthday.It isn’t until he hears hushed whispers and Nishinoya’s snicker behind him that Kei realizes he’s made a fatal mistake.





	when the crows jumped over the moon

**Author's Note:**

> AHHHH i'm so excited!! this is my first haikyuu fic ever!!! so of course, it had to be a full on tsukki gen one for tsukki's birthday :)
> 
> this fic is loosely based on that one ep of parks & rec where leslie finds out about ron's birthday and he becomes Stressed the entire week. hope you enjoy :)
> 
> also: i know in japan, people aren’t as crazy about birthdays like americans are but... just bear with me and the entire karasuno club and our apparent love for tsukki <3

The first two weeks of fall term passes exactly the way Kei expects it to.

Class is back in session, the Spring High preliminaries are just around the corner, and the annoying, oddball duo have been exerting unnecessary energy arguing about their new jump heights. Although they’re all second years now, their debates sound the same.

“Let me do it again, I didn’t get the proper pounce on my run-up that time!”

“Dumbass, you only get one shot! Guess you owe me five pork curry buns now!”

Basically, nothing out of the ordinary. Kei knows better than to expect any significant growth or maturity from them in such a short period of time. Not for the first time, he wonders how he’s survived this long in the club.

Fortunately, they’ve now made it to the last ten minutes of their last practice of the week.

Gathered together off to the side of the court, the team takes turns updating Yachi with their new heights and jump heights. So far, all of this passes normally, each member merely informing her whether they’ve grown or stayed the same while she jots down any new information onto her clipboard.

“191.3,” he says when she reaches him, and prepares himself for Hinata’s gasp of horror.

Right on cue, he hears a choking sound to his right, and it takes all the willpower within him not to turn to Hinata with a smirk. Hinata probably senses it from him anyways, and he can feel more than see his glare from his peripheral vision.

“Oh!” he hears Yachi suddenly exclaim. He focuses his attention back to her and sees brightened eyes and a smile spreading across her face. She’s looking a little too happy for his comfort and her wide grin triggers something dark and foreboding rising in his stomach—

“Tsukishima-kun, it’s your birthday next week?” she asks, an index finger resting on the page some place where his name must be.

At these words, the attention of the entire room turns in towards him at once. Trying his best to appear unaffected by this sudden shift in focus, he mutters a dispassionate hum of agreement. There’s no point in lying when the data is right in front of her.

“Sh-should we… would you like it if—?”

“Please no,” he replies automatically before she can finish asking the question. The last thing he wants is for anyone —  _ especially _ the people in this room — to take notice or change anything about their behavior towards him, just because it’s his birthday.

“Oh! Okay then… sorry!” Yachi looks back down at her clipboard nervously, shifting her pencil along the page as she continues down the list.

The silence seems to stretch on as Yachi finds her place on the page; Kei does his best to keep his face impassive, hoping with all his might that the moment will pass soon.

It isn’t until he hears hushed whispers and Nishinoya’s snicker behind him that Kei realizes he’s made a fatal mistake.

_ Please no _ , he had said. Not a casual, indifferent  _ no _ , the kind he’d mutter in flatter tones, one that would have easily rolled off his back, and consequently everyone else’s. Instead, he had given into the minor panic that rose up in him and blurted out  _ please no _ .

It’s only one word off but it makes all the difference in the world. By saying  _ please no,  _ he’s handed his teammates a weapon. They now know just how much he doesn’t want for them to celebrate his birthday and nothing instills more fear in him than a duo like Tanaka and Nishinoya obtaining such a vital piece of information.

Not that he wouldn’t enjoy doing something special on his birthday. He’s perfectly fine observing it on his own, would be content maybe with a nice home-cooked meal by his mother and a surprise visit from Ni-chan, who’s still away at college. But knowing his teammates, they’ve probably been around him long enough to pick up on the fact that none of his preferred ideas of acceptable festivities would ever involve any of these people at all.

With a tight swallow, he attempts to shake off any ominous feelings Nishinoya had inspired and focuses his attention back to the group.

By now, Yachi has moved on to query the next person — Tanaka. To his horror, Kei can hear suppressed laughter in his voice when he answers, “178.9.”

And that marks the moment where his entire week goes to hell.

* * *

 

The next day’s practice passes without any weird incidents. Nishinoya and Tanaka pay no attention to him, focused as ever in their game, and by the end of the practice, Kei himself almost forgets that he was ever worried about their sinister snickering to begin with. With any luck, it was all just a lackluster ruse designed to annoy him, because clearly, they’ve got nothing better to do with their time.

The moment of fear has passed.

“Oi, Tsukishima,” Tanaka calls out to him once they’re in the locker room after practice.

(Or maybe he’s thought too soon.)

Kei turns to him and sees Tanaka wearing the usual shit-eating grin he often has when talking to Kei. The one with a dangerous glint flashing maniacally in his eyes.

“What?” he indulges him anyways, against his better judgment. Better to get this over with sooner than later.

“What’s your favorite kind of cake?” Tanaka asks.

Kei freezes right as he’s pulling his sweater on over his head.

_ Oh, god. Please no. _

His eyes shift immediately to Yamaguchi, who’s standing next to him, and sends a clear message he’s sure his best friend of eight years will have no trouble picking up on:  _ say nothing. _ Yamaguchi shrugs, a nervous smile on his face, leaving Kei to try and figure out how to best wheedle himself out of the situation.

“I don’t like cake that much,” he lies, slipping an arm through his backpack handle and lifting it up onto his back. Whatever they’re planning, he refuses to give them anything to work with. The less he says, the better.

“Oh, okay, we’ll just have to guess then!” Nishinoya exclaims, clapping Kei on the shoulder.

_ Damn it. _

Kei turns away at once and heads towards the exit, but before he can even get his foot out the door, the two third years are already on him in hot pursuit.

“What about music?” Tanaka asks. “Favorite playlists? You’re always listening to something, but we don’t actually know what kind of music you like.”

“Ah. Thanks for the reminder,” Kei says before shifting his headphones over his ears with his free hand. Nothing is playing of course, but he doesn’t dare reach for his phone to select a playlist while they two are still trailing along behind him. He merely needs to give them the impression that nothing they’re doing is filing him up.

_ “What about favorite food?”  _ Tanaka shouts.

“Drinks?!” Nishinoya tacks on.

“Activites? — besides volleyball, of course—”

“Color?!”

Their voices grow louder and louder as they continue spewing words, words, and more words, all meaningless nonsense with increasing incoherence. How long can they keep this up?

_ Longer than I can,  _ he realizes with an internal groan.

When they still haven’t stopped by the time he reaches the boundary of campus, he pulls down his headphones and whips around to face them.

“If you think your antics are going to wear me down, you’re wrong,” he tells them. “I can do this all day.”

“ _ Can _ you though?” Tanaka eyes him doubtfully, peering into his face with his usual mad, appraising look.

Unfortunately, he’s right, Kei thinks regrettably, because he really can’t do this all day. At the same time, anything’s more tolerable than giving in and revealing his cake preferences to them.

Doing his best to keep his expression unphased, Kei tells them; “Just go home.”

He turns around and walks away from them, a sense of relief slipping into his chest when he hears that they aren’t following.

“Don’t worry, Tsukki-kun,” Tanaka coos after him. “We have all week! You can’t hold off on us forever!”

Kei snorts at that, but places his headphones back over his ears and doesn’t bother waving goodbye.

  
  


* * *

 

 

When Kei first gets to school on Monday, he arrives a peaceful man, assured in his likely prediction that by now, due to the nature of their short attention spans, Nishinoya and Tanaka have long forgotten whatever “plans” they had had two days before. His assumption is further confirmed when he sees the two of them around campus, heads thrown back in carefree laughter as they pore over a magazine together, most likely full of content that Kei would prefer not to know about.

Yamaguchi greets him as usual upon his arrival at their desks and Kei is grateful in the knowledge that he has at least one sane person at Karasuno who won’t rib him about his birthday. Part of him wants to ask Yamaguchi if he’s heard anything from the other boys about their plans — how much of it is serious and whether Kei ought to be genuinely concerned about the whole thing — but to do so would imply that their antics had gotten to him. It’s not that he doesn’t trust Yamaguchi, but on principle, the second Kei opens his mouth to complain about his teammates to a friend would mark the second he loses. Whatever he does, he can’t let that happen.

So with his head held high, he holds his tongue and goes through the rest of his classes like everything is normal and nothing has happened recently to give him any reason to be on edge.

And besides, he reminds himself, with their attention spans, they’re bound to have moved past all that by now.

Kei remains calm and collected as the day passes by without incidents. He does almost cross paths with Hinata and Kageyama at some point in the hallways but they’re so focused on whatever argument they’re having that they don’t even notice him. By the end of his final class, any worries he might’ve been holding onto slowly fade into the back of his mind, quickly becoming categorized as things that he doesn’t want to think about anymore.

He and Yamaguchi are heading towards the locker rooms to change into exercise clothes when the same fears crop up again. As they come upon the courtyard outside of the gym, Kei spots that annoying, familiar shock of orange hair: Hinata is dawdling around by the water pumps near the grass, holding his phone to his ear.

_ What is he doing? _ Kei thinks.

Shockingly, he’s still in his school uniform, which strikes Kei as strange. Isn’t he usually so excited about volleyball that normal thoughts like  _ taking his time _ never run through his mind? Judging by the neutral smile on his face, it's not an urgently serious phone call, but for the life of him Kei can’t figure out what scenario could have possibly caused Hinata to delay his presence at volleyball practice. Everyday, without fail, he and His Great Majesty are always the first two on the court, a guaranteed occurrence compounded by the fact that they never stop competing who will get there first.

Kei has long since accepted that there are some things in life he will simply never understand.

As they draw closer and are about to pass Hinata by, Kei tries his best not to listen. He doesn’t want to hear about whatever is making Hinata smile on the phone — it’s not worth the headspace. Despite his attempts, however, the idiot is as loud as ever, and small trails of his conversation come floating across the grounds towards them.

“…does it cost to get an order of — hmm, maybe about forty to fifty balloons? … Do you have dinosaur-shaped ones? … Oh! You do?! What size are those? … Uh huh, uh huh…”

Kei stops in his tracks, panic rising in his chest.  _ Balloons?  _ And more importantly,  _ dinosaurs?  _ How would he even know?

Yamaguchi turns to him with a questioning look, but before Kei knows what he’s doing, he’s marching straight up to Hinata, all self restraint forgotten. 

Reaching out his left hand, he snatches Hinata’s phone out of his grip mid-sentence and chucks it across the field with a short snap of his wrists. It skims along the grass to the left of them, tumbling to a stop some point three meters away. Hinata whips around to face him, his brows furrowed and mouth open in horror.

“What the hell, Tsukishima?!”

Cheeks flushed with anger, Hinata waves his arms all over the place as he goes off on Kei.

“That was my phone!” he shouts. “Why would you  _ do _ that?! I was having an important conversation and you just — GWAH!”

It’s instances like these where Kei uses his height to its full advantage. Raising himself up and peering down at his feet, Kei towers over Hinata and fixes him with his most intimidating glare.

“Who were you talking to?” he asks in a low, threatening voice.

Unfortunately, they’ve known each other for far too long for Hinata to be in the least bit intimidated.

“That’s none of  _ your  _ business,” Hinata scowls, poking a finger at Kei’s chest. “What’s gotten into you? Crazyshima, Crazyshima!”

Kei narrows his eyes at him and leans in closer.

“Whatever it is, stop it.”

“I  _ have  _ stopped! Thanks to you!” Hinata barks back before sprinting off in the direction of his phone and picking it up. Kei straightens up and looks over at him as he furiously dusts off his phone and checks to see if it’s okay.

“That was the point,” he states, more to himself than to Hinata.  _ Idiot,  _ Kei thinks as he watches him fret, holding his phone in the palm of his hand as if it were some frail, injured chick he’d just found in the wild.

Kei thinks of telling Hinata it’s going to be fine — he had purposely chosen to toss it at the grass with a small amount of strength so that no real harm would actually come to the device — but after a minute of panic, Hinata lets out a sigh of relief and the energy to say anything more dies in his soul. Giving him one last pitying look of despair, he turns and walks back to Yamaguchi’s side.

“Don’t laugh,” Kei tells him, when he sees the corners of Yamaguchi’s mouth twitch in amusement. Though, he knows after witnessing a fiasco like this, no amount of sharp glares or harsh warnings from him will ever stop Yamaguchi from smiling.

“I’m not,” Yamaguchi says, his grin is as wide as ever.

Kei keeps his gaze forward as he walks on, taking off his daily glasses and swapping them out for his sports ones. Before they enter the gym, he stops in his tracks right at the entrance and Yamaguchi nearly runs into him.

“T-Tsukki…?”

“Just so you know. If you have anything — any involvement at all with whatever the hell they’re up to,” Kei mutters under his breath, not bothering to look him in the eye. “You’re dead to me.”

And with that, he steps into the building.

Whatever the situation is, Kei seems to have thoroughly underestimated his teammates. For the next few days, he can no longer know peace. But he isn’t called Karasuno’s shield for nothing. If he can analyze his way on the court, then staying on his guard from those idiots for the rest of the week should be child’s play.

Or at least, he hopes.

 

* * *

 

When Kei sees Yamaguchi on Tuesday, Yamaguchi is his usual cheerful self despite the last threat Kei had given him after practice the day before. Unfortunately, this doesn’t tell him much, given how long Yamaguchi has put up with him over the years, but on a brighter note, none of the other members of the team have bothered him at school today.

Even at practice, nobody makes any references to birthdays or Tsukishima or cake. Kei feels relief at that, and seeing Kageyama and Hinata bicker, and Nishinoya and Tanaka yelling, helps bring about a strange sort of calm familiarity. Everything is normal again.

_ Unless… _

Is that what they want him to think? Are they attempting to lull him into a sense of false security? Could they really be that sly?

Kei’s eyes shift around the room, his mind distancing himself from the rest of his team until he feels as though he’s observing them from the other side of an invisible wall.

_ Nothing out of the ordinary here… _

His gaze falls on Yamaguchi, who’s practicing his serves. He looks calm and focused, a stark contrast to the nervous ball of anxiety he was a year ago. Surely, if Yamaguchi were holding back a secret like this from Kei, his nervousness would show, would it not? He’s not usually a very good liar…

“Oi, Tsukishima!”

The loud shout of his name jolts him back to physical reality, but before he can turn towards the speaker and ask _ what _ , a sudden, sharp blow smacks him in the back of his head, knocking the breath out of him as he stumbles forward.

Gritting his teeth, Kei rubs his skull where the pain is throbbing and hears a stifled yelp from somewhere to his right.

“S-sorry, Tsukishima-kun!” Hinata’s voice. That damn, untamed wild beast. When Kei looks up, Hinata is bowing profusely as he repeats “Sorry!” over and over again.

In front of him, Kageyama snickers: “ _ Nice serve. _ ”

_ Well,  _ Kei thinks with a scowl, karma certainly has a sense of humor.

“Tsukki, are you okay?” Fretful as always, Yamaguchi runs up to his side, his brows furrowed and eyes wide.

“I’m fine,” Kei says, holding a hand up, because if there’s anything worse than Kageyama smirking at him, it’s Yamaguchi being excessively concerned for him over nothing.

“Aw, Hinata!” Tanaka calls out. “Did you really have to do that on the week of his bir—”

_ “I’m fine,”  _ Kei repeats loudly, avoiding his upperclassman’s eyes. “Let’s continue with practice.”

He sees Tanaka and Nishinoya exchange looks of glee and groans inwardly. This cannot bode well.

For the rest of practice, nobody brings up Kei’s near head injury or makes any further mention of his birthday, but they do steal glances and share grins. The whole thing sets him on edge. It’s unnerving. A translucent, perennial joke floating, just barely visible, in the air above him. Kei can find no rest.

He needs this to stop, as soon as possible.

It is therefore after practice, when him and Yamaguchi finish changing and have walked far enough out of earshot from the rest of their team, that Kei opens his mouth and gets straight to the point.

“You’re usually not very good at lying,” he states without looking at his friend. This shouldn’t be too difficult; Yamaguchi gets nervous and can be intimidated easily. Kei knows this.

Yamaguchi makes a discomforted noise, the kind that usually slips out of him when confronted with an unpleasant insecurity about himself. Kei’s eyes flicker over to him for a split second before flitting back ahead. Yamaguchi looks just as bashful as he’d expected.

“I-I know,” Yamaguchi mumbles. “That’s why I never lie to you.”

Kei stops in his tracks and turns to face him. He fixes Yamaguchi with a sharp gaze, unwavering as he peers into his eyes.

“That’s true,” Kei says. “You never do, do you?”

Yamaguchi frowns, blinking back at him. Kei’s eyes narrow. If there’s any hint of Yamaguchi cracking under the pressure of his stare, he ought to be seeing it now. Instead, the other boy tilts his head, looking confused and clueless about this sudden act of intimidation.

“Tsukki… is this…? This is about your birthday, isn’t it?”

Kei purses his lips.  _ Obviously, yes,  _ he wants to say, but he knows Yamaguchi doesn’t need for him to confirm. It’s not out of the ordinary for Yamaguchi to display uncertainty despite not actually being uncertain whenever he’s nervous.

“What do you think?” Kei says instead.

“Ah — well…” Yamaguchi scratches the back of his head with an apologetic smile. “If this is about Nishinoya and Tanaka, they know we’re close, so whatever it is they’re planning, they haven’t been involving me at all.”

_ So they  _ are _ planning something. Great. _

“Tch,” is all Kei says before turning away and walking on. Of course Yamaguchi is clueless about it. At least there’s one thing he can count on.

Yamaguchi follows along, a worried expression still on his face. Kei takes one glance at him and sighs.

“Stop that,” he tells him.

Yamaguchi seems to understand the reassurance underneath the command. He lets out a breath of relief and reverts back to his cheerful self. Kei resists the temptation to roll his eyes.

He really does not have the energy to keep this up. Should he resign to what’s coming with fatalistic acceptance or try his best to subvert his teammates’ plans?

When they arrive at the Tsukishima residence, Yamaguchi says goodbye and they part ways. As Kei closes the door behind him and takes off his shoes, he decides in the end that avoidance is, not for certain, but probably the best answer.

 

* * *

 

On Wednesday, every sign Kei sees of any of his teammates causes him to duck out and hang his head low as he walks around the school campus. It’s gotten to the point where even a single flash of orange or the sight of any shaved head will steer him in a new direction immediately.

He’s starting to get jumpy about everything and he hates it. When the classmate who sits next to him in math class passes him folded up piece of paper while the teacher’s back is turned, Kei immediately balls it up and tosses it into the bin, feeling quite smug about his quick reaction time and the impressive arc of his toss until the classmate then informs him that the note was a confession letter meant for the female student sitting on the other side of him.

_ You need to relax,  _ he berates himself after giving the guy next to him a half-hearted shrug, the perfect picture of nonchalance, as though he had totally meant to be a dick and trash his note.  _ Two and a half more days. _ He returns his attention back to the chalkboard in front.  _ I only have to endure this for two… more… days… _

  
  


Later that night, when he’s at home finishing up some math problems, he hears his phone buzz at his desk.

**_MESSAGES (30 sec ago):_ ** **_  
_ ** _ Kuroo Tetsurou _

Kei narrows his eyes at it. He had only recently (and begrudgingly) added the Nekoma captain’s name into his contacts, the main reason being that he’d gotten tired of being surprised every time the same unknown number pops up in his inbox with some unwarranted advice about blocking, or worse, sly jabs about how  _ if you aren’t careful, Chibi-chan is going to get ahead. _

With a measured level of wariness, he picks his phone up, expecting the message to be in the same vein of these usual, unwelcome intrusions. Before he can even unlock his phone, however, another notification pops up on the screen.

**_MESSAGES (now):_ ** **_  
_ ** _ Bokuto Koutarou _

Kei squints at the two lines one after another beneath the time, a feeling of foreboding rising up in his chest. As he continues to stare at the two names lighting up his face, he feels tense knot form between his eyebrows.

There is no way in hell a series of messages from those two  _ in a row  _ bodes well and—

The texts are still coming in, sending a stream of buzzes vibrating again and again in his hand. All from Bokuto.

This is bad. This is very bad.

Resigning himself to the worst, he braces himself and slides open the messages.

 

_ From: Kuroo Tetsurou _ __  
_ Subject: _ _  
_ _ so the grapevine has it that a certain someone’s birthday is coming soon _

 

_ From: Bokuto Koutarou _ __  
_ Subject:  _ _  
_ _ HEY HEY HEY! heard someone’s BIRTHDAY is coming up??? _

_ what’re you gonna do??? _

_ you better do SOMETHING tsukki!!! _

_ as your elders, we didn’t raise you to be this way _

_ you’re totally gonna be doing something and you’re not gonna have a choice _

_ ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) _

_ see you around! maybe sooner than you think! _

_ ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) _

 

_ From: Kuroo Tetsurou _ __  
_ Subject: [no subject] _   
_ i know you won’t respond to this, but you can rest assured that i have not heard anything at all about a kidnapping team _

 

Kei slams his phone face down on his desk, sheer horror filling his stomach. Even without Kuroo’s last text  _ (kidnapping team???) _ everything about this is ominous.  _ Why  _ do they know? How did Kuroo and Bokuto even—?

_ Oh, _ he thinks, irritated.  _ Hinata and that pudding head kid are close. _

Seething, he shoves his phone under his pillow so he doesn’t have to look at it for the rest of the night and sits back in his chair, cursing the orange-haired idiot in his head. The entire ordeal gets under his skin and unnerves him. Getting those texts while in the safety and comfort of his own home… it’s invasive. They are literally reaching out to him in his personal private space where he‘s supposed to be having some peace and quiet. He should have known it was a mistake to give any of his teammates his number.

What can he do now to put an end to this? He stares at his homework and text book in front of him, mind darting frantically around for a way out of his teammates’ plans. He could avoid them altogether, perhaps skip school and practice the next two days.

Even as this crazy idea comes to him, the logical side of him  _ (the  _ only _ side of him, really)  _ draws the reigns back in.

This is insane. He, Tsukishima Kei, can’t possibly be contemplating skipping class. As someone who is taking more advanced courses, he needs to stay on top of his studies, doing everything he can to remain afloat. Furthermore — and more importantly — he can never give his teammates the satisfaction of knowing they’ve gotten to him like this.

No. He can’t let them affect his behavior in any way. He must rise above it.

And besides, wasn’t Kuroo known as “the master of provocation?” Maybe skipping school is what they all  _ want _ him to think…

“Tch,” he scoffs out loud. This whole ordeal is stupid. Kei can’t just ditch his classes. He’ll go tomorrow and the day after on his birthday, teammates be damned.

With this decision resolved, Kei fits his headphones over his ears, intending to drown the whole world out for the rest of the night.

 

* * *

 

There’s only one more day before his birthday and Kei can’t for the life of him remember a time where he was ever this twitchy.  _ It’s only one more day, _ he keeps telling himself as he gets out of bed that morning. All he has to do is to avoid everyone at all costs.

After shutting his alarm off, however, he sits at the edge of his mattress and revisits the idea of at least skipping morning practice, just this once.

_ No. _

Kei reaches a hand up and drags it down his face. He’d already decided last night, he reminds himself, that he can’t show his teammates any signs that his fear of what they’re planning for his birthday has been affecting him.

It’s cruel, he knows — even  _ he  _ knows—, but instead of meeting Yamaguchi on the path to school like he always does, Kei heads out earlier than usual, walks past their normal fork in the road, and heads straight to the club room to drop off his stuff.

As expected, Yamaguchi shows up to the gym slightly later than usual — because of course he waited for Kei longer than he should have — and gives him a questioning and slightly betrayed look as he joins the rest of the team on the court. Kei stares straight forward towards the net, not even able to give him a slightly apologetic look. In these trying times, he can’t trust anyone and there’s no room for guilt or shame. He’s only going to ditch his friend one more time tomorrow. Yamaguchi will forgive him eventually.

He’s tying up his shoelaces before practice starts when a sudden, loud  _ “OI!” _ makes him jump.

Kei scrunches his shoulders, refusing to turn towards his assailant.

“Nishinoya-san,” he mutters under his breath.

“I hope you like loud noises, Tsukishima!”

_ God… when will it be over? _

Lips curling into a smirk, Kei summons up his most maddening, calm and sarcastic voice.

“I tolerate you, don’t I?”

“What was that?” Nishinoya bellows in his ear. A hand grabs him by the hair, and Kei has to suppress a laugh. Noya-san is so easy to provoke.

“Ow!  _ Nishinoya _ —” and Kei is really laughing now. Somehow Nishinoya has managed to hook a leg around his neck and is now threatening to climb him, hands pushing and pulling hard against Kei’s shoulders and the back of his head.

“Noya-san,” Kei hears Ennoshita say, and delights in the scolding tone of his voice. “Come on, leave Tsukishima alone.”

There’s a pause in Nishinoya’s movements, and then, finally, his grip on Kei’s hair loosens.

Kei is about to flash Nishinoya one of his best smirks when Ennoshita adds: “Save it for the special day.”

His eyes widen at Ennoshita as Nishinoya brightens and skips away towards Tanaka and Hinata, who yells,  _ “Special day! special day!” _ over and over again like an idiot. When Ennoshita passes by him, he gives Kei the briefest flicker of a knowing smile, and Kei can physically feel his soul leaving his body.

_ What is happening? _

He survives the rest of practice by avoiding eye contact with everyone. Although nobody comments further on this “special day,” Kei simply cannot relax around them. Every tiny movement from Nishinoya makes him flinch and he keeps hitting the ball off kelter due to his attempts to eavesdrop on Hinata and Tanaka throughout practice. To top it all off, when he checks his phone during break, it’s only to see more texts from Kuroo and Bokuto, and even some from Suga-san.

_ From: Sugawara Koushi _   
_ Subject: [none] _ _  
_ _ I know how much you must hate this, but word does indeed travel fast. Bet you thought you’d seen the last of your senpais, didn’t you? _

Kei glances up, wary that the others might be watching, and catches Ennoshita gazing over at him, a knowing look in his eye.

_ What the fuck? _

This is madness. Ennoshita is supposed to be the reasonable one. If he is taking part in all this, then anything and everything is possible.

As Kei continues to glance around the room, however, he does notice that in the midst of all the chaos the team has kicked up, there is still one thing that has remained stable, consistent — and dare he say it — reliable.

His eyes narrow in on the familiar head of black hair in front of him.

There’s no way Kageyama is taking part in any of this. Kei purses his lips, coming to a decision. Sometimes, in life, in times of great distress, it’s the people you like the least, and who like  _ you _ the least, that can be trusted the most.

 

* * *

 

After enduring more sly smiles and unnecessarily forceful back pats from the loudest members on the team, Kei finally manages to slip out from the club room unnoticed.

Outside, he takes a different turn than the one leading him to his first class of the morning, rounds a corner, and has to roll his eyes as he comes to a stop at the sight before him.

A creature of habit, Kageyama stands with his back to Kei, glaring holes into the vending machine before him. It’s a pretty funny sight, no matter how many times Kei has seen it. In spite of himself, his mouth curls into a small smirk.

“Careful, King, or you’re going to curdle your milk before you even purchase it.”

Kageyama’s finger shoots out and punches his button of choice. The machine rumbles within, and a carton drops down through the chute. His Royal Highness bends forward to pick it up, then turns around to face Kei with a scowl.

“Can I help you?” he grunts.

Kei drops his smirk and scowls back at him. He feels pathetic; he must have really hit rock bottom if he’s going to  _ Kageyama _ for answers.

“Tell me what they’re up to,” he says with no preamble.

The furrow in Kageyama’s eyebrows deepens.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Kei takes a step forward, leveling Kageyama’s glare with one of his own.

“You are a terrible liar,” he presses. “I know they’re planning something. Surely you don’t care enough to keep it a secret from me.”

Kageyama detaches the straw from the back of his milk carton and stabs it into the box.

“The fuck kind of secrets would I be keeping from you?”

His tone, albeit rough, Kei realizes, is genuinely curious. Still, it’s Kageyama. He spends probably about half his time around Hinata, who has one of the loudest mouths on the team second only to Tanaka and Nishinoya. Kei has every reason to remain skeptical.

“You tell me,” he counters in a low, deadly voice.

They stand there for a good long minute or two, eyes narrowed and glaring at each other, neither refusing to back down. Eventually, Kageyama gives a hefty huff of annoyance and turns to leave, shoving the milk’s straw into his mouth as he goes.

A flicker of anger flares up inside Kei at this response. It’s not surprising for the King to treat him like some unworthy commoner, but the attitude still pisses him off regardless. Kageyama doesn’t make it five steps out when Kei raises his voice at his retreating back.

“I suppose I ought to feel touched  — I thought you’d be the last person to give a shit about my birthday.”

Kageyama stops in his tracks and tilts his head back to look at Kei, eyebrows still furrowed.

“What the fuck are you talking about?” he spits out.

“What is the team planning?” Kei asks. “Why was Hinata ordering balloons? Are they plotting a kidnapping? Surely even you aren’t thick enough to  _ not _ know what they’re up to?”

“How should I know?” Kageyama fires back. “I’m not Hinata’s keeper.”

Kei narrows his eyes and takes a few steps forward. He can’t believe Kageyama is actually going to be difficult about this.

“You must really enjoy torturing me, don’t you?”

For the first time since this conversation, Kageyama looks bewildered. “What the fuck does that have to do with anything you just asked?”

_ Idiots, the lot of them. _

Kei purses his lips as he searches Kageyama’s face for some hint of falsehood or fake cluelessness.

“You seriously don’t know?” Kei asks.

“ _ No! _ ” Kageyama roars.

Kei leans back, the belief settling in. So Kageyama  _ is  _ that thick, it turns out. Shocking.

(Not.)

He lets out an exasperated exhale, his shoulders slumping, and mutters, “Very well, then,” before stalking past the confused and riled up setter.

“Tch,” he hears Kageyama scoff from behind him.

_ Me too, Your Majesty, _ he thinks as he dons his headphones on and keeps walking.  _ Me too. _

 

* * *

 

Kei swears he’s losing his mind.

His eyes are dried out and strained from having been up all night. Outside, the pitch, black world beyond his window is just starting to lighten. Despite all this, he can’t bring himself to reach over for his phone and check what time it is.

_ Just sleep, _ he had commanded himself when he got into bed approximately five to six hours ago.  _ They’re not going to kidnap you — that’s what they want you to think. _

_ Or is it?? _

With the images of Tanaka’s and Nishinoya’s sneers, which had continued on in yesterday’s afternoon practice, and Kuroo’s threats and teases about a kidnapping team fresh in his mind, Kei had ended up tossing and turning the question back and forth in his head, ears straining for any suspicious sounds from outside the house. Even when he had thought he’d been able to slip into sweet unconsciousness, a small tap or noise from his window or in the hallway would snap him into alertness again.

_ Mother’s room is downstairs, _ he had reminded himself. Surely, she’d wake up if any of his team members tried anything.

But even if the kidnapping was just Kuroo teasing, it still hadn’t put his mind at ease knowing that in the morning, there might also be the possibility of Tanaka and Nishinoya pouncing on him at any moment, or springing some loud, flashy surprise on him out of nowhere.

_ What a way to turn 17… _

At least they don’t have morning practice today.

Once Kei starts to hear birds chirping outside his window, he knows sleep is a lost cause. It’s getting brighter and brighter through his blinds and if he has to estimate based on that, there’s another hour and a half before his alarm will go off. Finally, at long last, he reaches for his phone.

His eyes barely register the giant  _ 4:56 AM _ that appears across his screen before he’s distracted immediately by the amount of notifications lining up beneath it.

 

**_MESSAGES (3h ago):_ ** **_  
_ ** _ Kuroo Tetsurou _

**_MESSAGES (3h ago):_ ** **_  
_ ** _ Kuroo Tetsurou _

**_MESSAGES (3h ago):_ ** **_  
_ ** _ Bokuto Koutarou _

**_MESSAGES (3h ago):_ ** **_  
_ ** _ Kuroo Tetsurou _

**_MESSAGES (3h ago):_ ** **_  
_ ** _ Bokuto Koutarou _

**_MESSAGES (3h ago):_ ** **_  
_ ** _ Bokuto Koutarou _

**_MESSAGES (3h ago):_ ** **_  
_ ** _ Bokuto Koutarou _

**_MESSAGES (1:06 AM):_ ** **_  
_ ** _ Nishinoya Yu _

**_MESSAGES (12:01 AM):_ ** **_  
_ ** _ Hinata Shouyou _

**_MESSAGES (12:00 AM):_ ** **_  
_ ** _ Tanaka Ryuu _

**_MESSAGES (11:59 PM):_ ** **_  
_ ** _ Tanaka Ryuu _

**_MESSAGES (11:58 PM):_ ** **_  
_ ** _ Hinata Shouyou _

 

The rest of the notifications become a blur of names as Kei scrolls faster and faster, pulling his hair in frustration. With every line of text, he grows increasingly convinced that the biggest mistake of his life was giving out his number to anyone outside of his family. Moreover, he’s starting to feel convinced that even  _ having _ a phone was a mistake in the first place.

_ Oh, god. I can’t go to school today I can’t go to school today I can’t go to school today I can’t go— _

_ No.  _ **No,** _ that’s what they  _ want  _ me to think. _

Kei’s eyes widen with horror.

_ Oh my god, what have they done to me? _

He clears his notifications without reading any of them and reigns his thoughts back in, back onto the comfortable, level ground of sanity where he, as a completely relaxed and logical person, normally resides. That side of him reminds himself that he can’t skip school. Not only will he fall behind on his grades if he does, but it’ll show his teammates that he’s behaving differently, which will mean that they would have won.

Gathering himself and every last ounce of his wits together, he throws off his covers and gets out of bed—

Only to trip over a pile of books he doesn’t remember placing on the floor.

Steadying himself on his desk chair, Kei blinks his dry, sleep-deprived eyes up at the ceiling and silently prays that some god out there will have mercy on him and end his suffering now.

After he changes into his uniform and brushes his teeth, he says goodbye to his mother and puts his shoes on at the door.

Once he’s ready, he stops with his fingers on the handle and takes a deep breath to steady himself. Slowly, he pushes open the door and peeks his head out into the open air warily, his wired up brain on high alert.

The world outside is not safe right now.

He stands there, eyes darting everywhere to make sure he really is indeed alone, when a sound from inside the house makes him jump.

“Kei, what are you doing?”

Kei straightens up and looks back at his mother. She’s standing in the hallway just outside the kitchen, smiling at him; he does his best to look normal.

“Uh… going to school,” he mumbles.

“So early?” she asks.

Kei shrugs. “Yeah.”

With a knowing look in her eye, she nods encouragingly at him and her grin widens.

“Happy birthday, Kei,” she says.

_ Don’t remind me… _ he thinks while he says aloud: “Thank you, okaasan.”

After confirming that the coast is clear, he slips outside and shuts the door behind him and takes a deep breath.

_ One more day, _ he thinks as he starts walking forward. He only needs to get through _ one more day _ .

  
  


Like the day before, Kei passes by the usual place where Yamaguchi meets him and continues on without waiting for his friend. As a result, he arrives at school earlier than usual and ducks away into his first classroom with his headphones wrapped around his ears, allowing the mellow tunes he picked for this morning to soothe his discomforted soul.

For the next few minutes, he loses track of time. Eventually, the teacher calls their attention to the start of class — and Yamaguchi’s seat is still empty.

Stowing his headphones away, he takes out his notes and homework from last night and focuses ahead.

He sincerely hopes Yamaguchi didn’t wait up for him too long, because after everything the team has put him through, Kei really can’t afford to feel guilty today.

Just as he is contemplating sending his friend a text, the door to the classroom opens and Yamaguchi walks in looking extremely apologetic. He bows profusely to the teacher before coming around to take his seat in front of Kei. He doesn’t look back and wave. He doesn’t look the least bit betrayed. In fact, he looks perfectly cheerful.

_ Suspicious,  _ Kei frowns.

Despite it all, he doesn’t bother making eye contact with Yamaguchi for the rest of class.

  
  


Fortunately, for the duration of the entire day, Kei doesn't run into any of his volleyball teammates throughout school. It feels almost too good to be true and he thinks he’d almost know bliss and peace again if not for the small part of him that’s a little worried about what this could mean. At any moment, the threat of any one of them popping out of nowhere to pull some wild trick on him still looms over him.

The uncertainty follows him until afternoon practice and he has to scold himself for contemplating ditching it again. In his defense, if anything were to happen today, they must have planned for it to happen there.

Kei stops at his shoe locker, deep in thought. He had already made it through his classes. Perhaps he could skip one practice, just once for his birthday (and his sanity).

Coming to a decision, he slams his locker shut and turns.

“Holy shit.”

He fumbles with his headphones and almost drops them as Yamaguchi face suddenly appears right behind his locker door.

“Hi, Tsukki!” he exclaims with his usual bright grin. “Ready for practice?”

Kei utters a million curses in his head.

“Do I have a choice?” he mutters before heading off towards the exit.

Yamaguchi follows along with a big grin on his face. Kei sighs and resigns himself to the worst.

_ Let’s just get this over with. _

 

* * *

 

The two of them walk side by side in silence towards the gym, Yamaguchi humming happily to himself as they go. Kei both wants to and doesn’t want to ask about it. The world out here is a scary place today. He just has to get through the next nine or so hours until the clock strikes midnight. Then maybe he can finally rest in peace.

When they arrive at the club room, Kei stops at the door and stares at the knob, suspicious. He isn’t aware of how scary his face looks until Yamaguchi tilts his head curiously and shifts his eyes back and forth between Kei and the door.

“What’s wrong, Tsukki?” he asks, a concerned expression taking over his face.

Kei doesn’t want to say, but he also can’t stand here for the rest of the day without Yamaguchi fretting, so.

Preparing himself for the worst, he takes a deep breath, reaches his hand out for the door knob, and—

He flinches back as the door swings open, crossing his arms over his face to protect himself from whatever assault might be waiting on the other side of it.

Nothing comes at him.

“Tsukki, are you okay?” Yamaguchi asks again as Kei hears the sound of his friend walking in ahead of him to drop his bag down on a bench.

He cracks open an eye and peers around his wrist still held up in front of him, bracing himself for any potential surprise that might be flung his way. When he feels certain that he is not in any immediate danger, he slowly lowers his arms and peers into the room.

There’s no one in here except Yamaguchi. He takes a few tentative steps in, looking around. No loud noises. No heated shouts or the sounds of male bodies banging around as they change clothes and bicker.

The whole thing strikes Kei as very foreboding.

“Tsukki?”

Kei blinks and refocuses his eyes onto his friend at the prompting.

“I’m fine,” he intones.  _ Where is everyone? _

As though reading his mind, Yamaguchi answers the question for him.

“We should hurry; we’re a little late!” he tells him, picking up his pace as he changes out of his school uniform. “I hope Coach Ukai won’t be too angry with us.”

“Right,” Kei replies, setting his stuff down and following suit. It makes sense. He had been dawdling around after class while debating whether to skip practice.

Once dressed in exercise clothes, Kei trails after Yamaguchi towards the gym.

Kei stops in his tracks again at the door and walks over to peer in through the window. His teammates are all there, playing volleyball like any other practice. Yachi is throwing Hinata and Kageyama some ball tosses, Tanaka is working on his serves, and Nishinoya is on the other side diving to save as many as he can. There’s no sign or hint of anything out of the ordinary.

“Tsukki?”

Yamaguchi in his worried voice pipes up once again. Kei sincerely wishes he would stop.

“I’m fine,” he finds himself repeating as he turns away from the window and follows Yamaguchi inside.

When Kei steps in, nobody even looks at him. Nishinoya and Tanaka remain focused on their own practice and the rest of them continue on what they’ve been doing as though nothing special is happening today. Also, contrary to the threatening text Suga had sent him about it not being the last time Kei will see his senpais, none of the third years are present here to surprise him. (Not that Kei would have minded seeing them, but the idea of them showing up to pull some birthday prank on him along with the rest of the team would fall under the category of overly sentimental things he wants to have no part in.)

As he bends down to re-tie his shoelaces, Kei can’t help wondering for the tenth time that week if he’s somehow being tricked and lulled into some false sense of security again. It’s weird. They’re not doing  _ anything _ . They’re not even acknowledging him at all. They’re just… acting normal.

Nothing happens the entire time. Aside from the usual bruises and calluses his hands endure from blocking, Kei makes it through practice unscathed. Hinata says hello once, then stares at Kei in confusion when Kei shrinks away from him, as if  _ he’s  _ the weird one.

And before he knows it, practice is over.

Other than the two wild beasts insisting on extending their time to practice their freak combo, the rest of the team goes back to the club room to change. As he watches the third year boys waltz into the room, Kei’s anxiety picks up again.

While all of them are changing out of their exercise clothes, two thoughts cross his mind:

  1. This is their last chance to spring something on him. ** _  
_** 2\. He could probably sue for the mental and emotional stress they’ve inflicted upon him.



“Bye, Tsukishima!”

Nishinoya’s loud voice booms in his ears and Kei gets the air knocked out of his lungs as a forceful hand slaps him on the back.

Before he even has time to properly feel fear at this exchange or for the potential pouncing follow-up such actions usually come with, Nishinoya kicks open the door and walks out without another word. Tanaka and Ennoshita follow soon after, giving the entire room a general wave of goodbye before heading out. The door closes shut after them and Kei catches Tanaka’s mutters of  _ “probably should go make sure Hinata and Kageyama actually quit playing”  _ before the silence of all the loud people in a room leaving falls upon them.

_ Huh. That’s weird. _

While his remaining teammates continue to change and get their belongings together, Kei switches his glasses out for his regular ones, trying to assess the situation.

It’s only when more than half the team is gone that he realizes something is missing.

Yamaguchi isn’t here.

The reasonable thing to do would probably be to ask Narita if he’d seen Yamaguchi at all since the end of practice (Kei could have sworn his friend was right behind him), but at that precise moment, Kageyama and Hinata come bursting through the door, red-faced and disgustingly sweaty, bickering about who knows what at a volume they really do not need to be at. Their loud disruption causes Kei to lose his nerve to remain calm and logical.

“Well, don’t let  _ me _ get in your way,” he drones as he slings his bag over his shoulder and walks out the door. Anything to get away from them as soon as possible.

Once outside, Kei peers around the courtyard for any sign of Yamaguchi, but he’s nowhere to be found.

_ Huh. Odd. _ Maybe he had left early because of a stomach ache or something — it’s not too far off of a conjecture. Kei supposes he hadn’t been paying the most attention anyways so he might as well shrug it off and start heading home.

With one more glance around at his surroundings to check that the coast is clear (as he is still on the alert for any movement from the likes of Tanaka or Nishinoya), Kei walks down the stairs and makes his way home.

_ What a strange day… _

He continues down the familiar path, headphones on and eyes on the ground, when a pair of shoes up ahead in the road makes him stop and look up.

There stands Yamaguchi, dressed in his school uniform and sporting a wide, teeth-baring grin.

Kei pulls his headphones back to hang around his neck and stares warily at the medium-sized white box in Yamaguchi’s hand and the giant shopping bag he’s holding in the other.

This can’t be a good sign.

When Yamaguchi doesn’t say anything, Kei turns his head and glances around them wildly, checking for any signs of unsuspecting teammates lurking nearby.

“Are you alone—?”

“Happy birthday, Tsukki!!”

Kei stiffens and throws his arm out in front of him.

“Relax, Tsukki,” Yamaguchi laughs. “It’s just me.”

Kei peers at him over the crack in his elbow. “Are you sure?”

“Yes,” he replies simply as he takes a few steps forward towards Kei.

“If I find out at any moment that you’ve lied to me—”

Yamaguchi stops right in front of him and shoves the box at his chest, forcing Kei to drop his hands to it.

“Not lying,” he reassures. Sliding a finger through the slit in the box, Yamaguchi pops it open.

Kei looks down at it, then feels his spirits lift.

A circle of strawberries sitting on a snowy bed of white cream greets him. Strawberry shortcake — his favorite. Across the center in neat, cursive letters, the red icing reads:

“ _ We tolerate you too!” _

Something warm and unfamiliar bubbles inside Kei’s stomach and a small lump rises in his throat.

“You didn’t have to—”

“We all did it,” Yamaguchi beams. “The team, I mean. Take-sensei kept it in the fridge in his office all day. It’s why I was late this morning.”

“But…” Kei looks around them again, eyebrow raised. “They’re not all—”

“Stop worrying, Tsukki!” Yamaguchi laughs. “There are no surprises here, I promise.”

“But the whole week… the team…” Kei pauses, lips pursing.  _ He’s  _ not the crazy one,  _ they _ all are. Nishinoya and Tanaka pestering him, Hinata on the phone going on about balloons, Kageyama being unhelpful as usual…

_ What are they all playing at? _

“They were all just messing with you,” Yamaguchi explains, scratching the back of his head. At least he has the grace to look abashed. “But we all know you’d want a quiet affair for your birthday so we pitched in to get you the cake and these gifts!”

He lifts the shopping bag higher for Kei to see.

Memories of all the incidents from the entire week replay themselves in Kei’s mind. So even Kuroo and Bokuto texting him was all part of the ruse. His lips curl just barely into the tiniest of smirks.

_ Well played, team. Well played. _

Kei tries to swallow but the weird lump in his throat still hasn’t cleared itself. It takes a few seconds for him to realize that the feeling is due to something bordering affection.

Refusing to acknowledge this, he looks off to the side and shuts the cake box closed.

“I cannot believe you lied to me,” he says in lieu of a thank you.

“Ah, yeah… sorry,” Yamaguchi says nervously, returning to his usual habit of scratching the back of his head again. “Am I still dead to you?”

Kei allows himself the tiniest sliver of a smile before he side steps past Yamaguchi and continues on the path in the direction of his house. No way he’s letting Yamaguchi see his smile grow.

“If you think I’m going to set your mind at ease after the torture you put me through this week,” he calls back after he’s gotten a few steps ahead. “You’ve got another thing coming.”

He hears a relieved sigh from behind, then: “I expected nothing less.”

Within seconds, Yamaguchi catches up to him and they fall back into their usual rhythm. If there’s anything Kei can rely on, it’s this. Sheepish grins in response to his pursed lips; just another casual walk back from school with Yamaguchi by his side.

“Well. Happy birthday, Tsukki!”

Kei glances over at him to see Yamaguchi grinning widely. Although Kei will never admit it, as he turns his eyes back on the road ahead of them, he thinks to himself that  _content_ is a good word for how he feels right now.

A small smile tugs at his lips. Despite the wild craziness of the entire Karasuno volleyball club, Kei has to hand it to them.

It's not the worst birthday he's ever had.

**Author's Note:**

> please come say hello or scream about hq with me at [tumblr](https://the-silverdoe.tumblr.com) and/or [twitter](https://twitter.com/silverdoee_)!


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